Execs explain the rationale behind Amazon buying Twitch
If yesterday's news that online megaretailer Amazon had purchased streaming game footage hub Twitch for $970 million took you by surprise, you're not alone - not by a long shot. However, a recent Time interview with Amazon vice president of games Michael Frazzini and Twitch CEO Emmett Shear explains exactly why the two companies are now joined at the hip.
When asked why the acquisition makes sense, Shear explained that both Amazon and Twitch "have a shared vision for the gaming industry." Further, Shear points out that Amazon is willing to give Twitch the freedom to operate as it always has, only with the not insignificant resources of the world's largest online retailer backing the streaming site's moves.
Frazzini, in turn, underlined Amazon's ongoing campaign to forcibly insert itself into the world of gaming. "Obviously if we're going to be in the devices business, we have to be thinking hard about games," Frazzini told Time. "And at the center of that is the customer experience, which is what's so interesting about Twitch for us. Twitch has that same point of view. They think long term."
Above all, like most corporate maneuvering, this acquisition is driven by potential profit. As Time points out, Amazon's motivations for entering the gaming space hinge on the average gamer's purchasing patterns. As the article put it, "Amazon loves people who buy games through Amazon, said Frazzini, because gamers tend to come back and buy all sorts of other things."
[Image: Twitch]
